GOP for legal pot? Hemignway's high help

Andrew Hemingway, running for the Republican nomination for governor, has sent some conflicting messages about marijuana, but the legalization crowd has heard him loud and clear. They think he is for it, and they are rallying to him.

Hemingway has said at times that he is for decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana. He also has said he is “open to a path to legalization.” We think he is more than just open to it, but firmly for it. Others seem to share that view, or at least hold that hope.

In May, the national Marijuana Policy Project backed Hemingway and urged its supporters to vote for him in the Republican primary — even if they are Democrats.

The project alerted its supporters that New Hampshire allows registered independents to vote in either party’s primary, and it gave non-Republicans instructions on how to change their affiliation to independent so they could vote for Hemingway in the primary.

The project also appears to have donated $7,000 to Hemingway’s campaign, which he does not seem too eager for people to know. Though the law requires every campaign donor to be identified, Hemingway’s campaign finance report did not include the name of the donor who gave $7,000 from the Washington, D.C., address of the Marijuana Policy Project.

If Hemingway is full-blown libertarian on drug legalization, fine. But he needs to come clean with Republican primary voters and say so.